Posts filed in vocabulary

Though English is generally considered to contain the most words of any language in the world, appropriating vocabulary from all over, there are times when those many words simply fail us. Like having no single word to describe the intense “vicarious embarrassment” you feel when watching an episode of “Girls.” If only we were Finnish–there’d be a term for that.

Below is that word plus 13 others that lack an English equivalent. Now if only we could pronounce them all, then we could take them for our own like the entitled English speakers we are! Unless of course you can think up your own alternate names for these situations. If you’re that creative, please do share with us in a comment!

2. Pelinti (Buli, Ghana)
Your friend bites into a piece of piping hot pizza, then opens his mouth and sort of tilts his head around while making an “aaaarrrahh” noise. The Ghanaians have a word for that. More specifically, it means “to move hot food around in your mouth.”

3. Layogenic (Tagalog)
Remember in Clueless when Cher describes someone as “a full-on Monet… from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”? That’s exactly what this word means.

4. Rhwe (Tsonga, South Africa)
College kids, relax. There’s actually a word for “to sleep on the floor without a mat, while drunk and naked.”

5. Zeg (Georgian)
It means “the day after tomorrow.” Seriously, why don’t we have a word for that in English?

8. Tartle (Scots)
The nearly onomatopoeic word for that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can’t quite remember.

9. Koi No Yokan (Japanese)
The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love.

10. Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego)
This word captures that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.